BDC's May 2023 Overview

We are closing in on the end of the BDC's yearly traditional September - May local history programs cycle. We leave with a bang by offering three local history related programs covering different centuries:

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  Tomorrow is Jackpot with author Jason Ryan at Beaufort Branch. This is the 20th century topic. The speed at which the seats were reserved was unprecedented. All seats were taken within 2 hours of BHM getting the reservation system to work. I do so hope that you secured your reserved seat before they were all gone. If you are one of the lucky ticket holders, do not be late! Reservations expire at 1:55 pm the day of the presentation. Though there is little likelihood that we'll have a significant number of no-shows, our usual process will apply. At 1:55 pm, we open up empty seats for stand-by customers.

• On Thursday, May 18th, the Chair of the State's 250th Committee is speaking at the Beaufort County Historical Society's Annual Meeting (with the BDC and Beaufort County 250th Committee as co-sponsors). His topic is a 21st century one founded on the 18th century events during the American Revolution: "The Liberty Trail in Beaufort District." Registration for that program will open on May 4th.
  
  
  

• On Wednesday, May 24th, Neil Baxley will reprise "Dueling in Beaufort District" in a BDC@ Bluffton Branch program. Though this is an 18th and 19th century topic, the practice was more concentrated in and outlawed during the 19th century.
  

JSYK: I was all for going "First Come; First Seated; Room Capacity: 120 Humans." [BTW: Bluffton Branch has the largest capacity meeting room in the BCL system]. But Bluffton Branch wanted keep a registration list so if you'd like to register call: 843-255-6503. I seriously doubt that we'll find 120 people who want to come learn about dueling at 11 AM on a Wednesday morning. But, hey, wouldn't it be phenomenal is I have to eat those words?

Though most of Preservation Week this year happens to be in the month of May, circumstances were such that we held our preservation related program "What's in Your Attic?" a bit early. The fact that 10 people came to "What's in Your Attic?" and 13 people went to Warren Cobb's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Your Archives at Hilton Head Branch Library is a very acceptable turn-out for such a niche topic. If you're interested in getting copies of some of the hand-outs we shared at our "What's in Your Attic?," program, contact us: bdc@bcgov.net or 843-255-6468. We'll share until supplies run out.

National Postcard Week is May 7 - 13 in 2023. I'm taking a much less intensive approach to celebrating it this year in social media. There are however, lots of postcards already posted throughout this blog. Just do a search of the Connections blog as show in the image and you'll have access to more than 75 instances of BDC postcards related images and information.

In between programs, Olivia and I will work with customers, process, preserve and manage local history materials. She will endeavor to finish the BDC inventory in advance of the switch from the Evergreen ILS system to the Sirsi/Dynix ILS Symphony system next month. She is set to complete the inventory work that began in March 2022 with the help of former Technical Services employee Angelina Smith and current Technical Services employees, Darlene Simmons and Valerie Lesesne. As of April 5th, we were at 12K items and counting. (Just so you know: The purpose of the inventory is to establish a baseline for my successor in anticipation of retirement. It's a coincidence that the SCLENDS consortium decided to switch ILS systems too.)

I will take a few days off this month but Olivia will be in the Research Room to assist scheduled customers. The Library system will be closed on Monday, May 29, 2023 for Memorial Day.